Library Notes

On Monday evening, July 20, 2020, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi spoke online about how to be an antiracist, the title of his bestselling book. He is a professor of history and international relations, as well as the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center, at American University, a private research university in DC. The event was organized and sponsored by the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System in Maryland. Dr. Charlene Dukes, the President of Prince George’s Community…

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Discover how EBSCO Discovery Service Makes Research Easy!   The Missouri State University Libraries now provides the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS). EDS offers a simple, single search box to explore your library’s collection and electronic resources. It provides easy access to books, journals, articles, and more! In addition, it provides access to open repositories of quality information resources from around the world.   Join us for an online ZOOM workshop. No need to register. It will be offered on the…

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Two staff positions in the MSU Libraries are in the process of being reclassified and redefined. The positions are being realigned from functional areas of declining need to a programmatic area of increasing need and workload.  A Library Associate II position focusing on maps and government documents is being reorganized into an Administrative Specialist II position that will focus on supporting the MSU Testing Center, which has been managed by the MSU Libraries for several years now.   A Library…

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All current employees of the MSU Libraries are invited to attend an online Zoom meeting next Monday, August 10, 2020, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. CDT.  The Provost of MSU, Dr. Frank Einhellig, plans to join us for the first half of our meeting.  Potential topics of discussion include: Updates for enrollment for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 General budget updates Travel and professional development opportunities in FY21 The new Mask Policy that the MSU Board of Governors is expected…

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Dr. Grace Jackson-Brown, Professor of Library Science at Missouri State University, and Dr. Deborah Robinson, Research Investigator at the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan, were notified last week by IMLS, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, that their grant application had been funded. Under the auspices of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, the proposed research, which Dr. Jackson-Brown and Dr. Robinson co-wrote, and which they will co-direct, A Taxonomy of Black History…

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Earlier this week furniture installers from Scott-Rice unpacked and assembled most of the new furnishings for a major area on the west side of the Second Level of Duane G. Meyer Library on the Springfield campus of Missouri State University.  This is another step in the massive multi-year project to completely redesign and refurbish the public areas of Duane G. Meyer Library.  Once again the Space Committee of the MSU Libraries has done an excellent job of exploring how various…

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The Missouri State University Libraries invites individuals to apply for an important and exciting new position in our dynamic, forward-thinking library: E-Resource Strategist. Although MSU currently is under a university-wide hiring freeze, resulting in five open positions in the MSU Libraries being frozen, both President Smart and Provost Einhellig approved the launching of this search to fill this vital new position.  This will be a national search. The short version of the job advertisement reads: The Missouri State University Libraries,…

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The Standard, the student-run campus newspaper at Missouri State University, recently featured a story by reporter Jack McGee about our “Enduring COVID-19” collaborative collecting initiative and included information about the partnership with the History Museum on the Square, the State Historical Society of Missouri, and  the Springfield-Greene County Library District.  Ozarks Pubic Television created a webpage about the “Enduring COVID-19” project that provides more information and links about the collaborative project: If you’d like to submit your story about the…

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As we all prepare for the new academic year, in light of our ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, changing user needs and expectations, a university-wide hiring freeze, major systems changes, and increased fiscal constraints, several Libraries employees (faculty and staff) have stepped up to assume additional roles and responsibilities for the MSU Libraries and its users, beginning in August: David Adams will devote more of his professional time and talent to BearWorks, MSU’s Institutional Repository, and our expanding e-publishing…

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For the past 18 years, since the newer part of Duane G. Meyer Library building opened, we have used a security gate at the top of the interior ramp up to the main level to count the number of visitors. We always knew it was under-reporting the total number of visitors to the building, because some people enter Meyer Library and use the lobby, 101, Outtakes, the vending machines, the restrooms off the lobby, and even the Open Access Computing…

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